The Pomegranate That Ate Victoria
Sunday, June 6th
This Sunday we chopped up pomegranates and made some observations. Generally it was found that Pomegranates are : juicy, messy, full of seeds, tough/tedious to break apart and quite tasty. Some tables’ pomegranates appeared chaotic while others seemed to have some order to the design of the seeds. (check out flickr or facebook for full juicy details)
This messy and tasty experiment served as a metaphor for what we The Table are trying to become/have become. We are messy. We are juicy. We are full of organized chaos. We are many and we are one. Maybe you don’t appreciate our fruit metaphors, but this idea is pretty ‘core’ to who we are. Even our logo, among other symbols, kind of represents how many individual parts make up the one entity that is The Table.
The Table: What’s in a Name?
When Andy and Josh were brainstorming names for the church plant, they got some ideas from Abraham. When God showed Abe the land that would belong to his descendants, Abe went around the land, staking out the territory and building altars out of rocks wherever he stopped.
Altars were symbols of the way the Jewish people had communion and relationship with God, through sacrifice. Then Jesus came and gave himself as the ultimate sacrifice. When he explained it to his friends he was sitting around a dinner table, explaining it by breaking a loaf of bread and passing around the wine. So the Altar way of communing with God was replaced by a dinner table where God in bodily form sat and ate with his disciples.
Ergo, tables, food and community are the superglue of this church community.
The Table might seem chaotic and unorganized, but there is method to the madness. Andy showed us the projected plan that he and Josh made up before we started meeting in September. With some cartoon graphics and slides it illustrated how the plan will work and has already started to work. Believe it or not we are already somewhere near phase four.
The Table community started with a couple girls and a couple guys meeting for bible studies. Now it’s already multiplied to all of us, only a year later. We are excited to keep it growing!
There are only so many people that can reasonably fit around a dinner table, and it’s impossible for us to build a deep relationship with each and every person in Victoria. (This is where the Giant Honeymushroom church-blob comes in, of previous post fame). We can reach the whole city, one little group of people at a time.
Once our Tuesday night group grew from around a dozen to about forty regulars we multiplied into several groups. Now we have many Pom-seeds/Tables meeting around Victoria, but we are still part of this one big juicy pomegranate.
There are already several Pom-groups:
Langford
Saanich
Fairfield/Cook St. (The Convent House)
Mid-Vic/Fernwood
These groups are in no way disconnected from each other.To keep us connected we still come together for corporate worship and hanging-out time. The team leaders and facilitators of the groups are mentored and guided by Andy. Meanwhile, Josh is continuing to dream up new groups, which will keep sprouting up until this pomegranate eats Victoria.
So what’s your role?
None of this scheme would work at all without each person being involved and having a role to play. When we talked about the “ideal community” last week, this point came up a lot. As members of the launch team and small groups, we each can find our own groove. Like maybe you’re awesome at hosting tea-cosy-crocheting-parties, or organizing outdoor hiking adventures, or maybe you like to play the tuba, or maybe you just like showing up on Sundays with a big grin on your face. All of those are legit “titles”, and ideally each of us will have one.
So far we have a couple people that are on our Table squad that have defined roles, and they all go introduced this Sunday, just in case you’re wondering where the money goes, who picks the music, or why that person is always taking pictures of you while you eat.
Josh= lead planter. (big dreamer)
Andy=support planter. (discipler)
Kate=admin. (behind the scenes important stuff!)
Mark=$$$ (its not his cash, he just make sure it gets to the right place)
“Team Leaders”/ Interns
Madeleine= Prayer (full timer who prays a lot and encourages others to as well)
Kristin=Good-doer (organizes community outreach)
Caitlin=Artiste (painter- you may see her work on our website!)
Dominique=Social atmosphere police (makes sure we’re not freaking people out)
Joshua=Music (plays the guitar and sings real nice)
Sarah=Communications (picture-snapper, blogger and publicist)
Jonathan=Artizo (pastoral-in-training)
